Metal News for April 21, 2011

We post metal news every day, throughout the day, covering thousands of metal bands including underground and unsigned bands. You are currently browsing the news archive, but you can also find news by band.

Blackened death metal act Book of Black Earth has launched the track "Cross Contamination" from the band's forthcoming album, "The Cold Testament," exclusively at Brooklyn Vegan. Check it out now at this location. The album, which is out on May 24, 2011, was tracked by Chris Common (Pelican, The Sword) at the Red Room Studio in Seattle and mixed and mastered by Dan Swano (Bloodbath, Nasum, Opeth) at Unisound in Sweden.

The track listing is as follows:

1. Weight Of The World2. Cross Contamination3. Antarctica4. Irritating Spectre5. Termination6. Research And Destroy7. Road Dogs From Hell8. I See Demons

Swedish death metal act Vomitory has posted another new song online from the band's new album "Opus Mortis VIII." You can check out the song "Shrouded In Darkness" by heading over to the metalnews.de site here. The band also recently posted another song online titled "Regorge in the Morgue."

Comments Vomitory drummer Tobias Gustafsson: "Opus Mortis VIII is our eighth album (no shit!) - our eighth Opus of Death. And I dare to say that this is one of the strongest albums we've done, and it most certainly has the most powerful production we've ever had on any album, hands down. For the third time, we worked with Rikard Löfgren in his Leon Music Studios. We raised the bar quite a few notches in the studio - both production-wise and performance-wise, and we couldn't be happier with the result. We are not breaking new death metal ground with this album - that was never Vomitorys' mission - but Opus Mortis VIII offers diversity and dynamics that you haven't quite heard from Vomitory before. Still, this is a very intense and aggressive album in the true Vomitory tradition - all the essential signature details are there. Once you hear the opening track, 'Regorge In The Morgue,' you will need no further proof of that!"

"Opus Mortis VIII" will be released the 26th of April, 2011 via Metal Blade Records, and the track listing is as follows:

1. Regorge In The Morgue2. Bloodstained3. They Will Burn4. The Dead Awaken5. Hate In A Time Of War6. Torturous Ingenious7. Forever Damned8. Shrouded In Darkness9. Combat Psychosis10. Requiem For The Fallen

Nervecell has issued the following announcement about performing at the upcoming Summer Breeze Open Air:

"We can finally confirm that we'll be making our way to Europe this summer to play a few festivals in the month of August 2011. So without any further delay we now announce our first 2011 European Festival appearance at the renowned Summer Breeze Open Air 2011 in Dinkelsbühl, Germany which takes place from the 18th to 20th August. This will mark Nervecell's first ever appearance at Summer Breeze Open Air and we look forward to playing alongside all the other kick ass metal acts confirmed on the bill such as Bolt Thrower, Vader, Decapitated, Aborted, As I Lay Dying, and many many more...PROST!"

North Carolina doom metallers Hour of 13 have confirmed a string of shows in the USA with psychedelic rockers Kylsea. Hour of 13's second album, "The Ritualist," was recently remastered and re-released on Earache Records, shortly before the group's new vocalist Ben Hogg joined the fold. The upcoming tour will be the band's first full run of shows with the new frontman.

Hour of 13 guitarist Chad Davis comments: "Hour of 13 are honored to be sharing the stage with Kylesa. They are a great band and we are more than pleased to be on the road with them."

A statement from 313 INC Artist Management reads: "This is shaping up to be the underground tour of the spring. Two powerful bands bringing their end-time message to the masses. Ear drums will be pummeled."

Madison, Wisconsin hooligans Deep Shit will make their way through the treacherous South next month and fans can teach them the fine ways of Southern hospitality as they plow through your fields with a blistering breed of powerviolence. The details are as follows:

Californian blues-rockers Rival Sons have revealed the cover art for their forthcoming album, "Pressure & Time," which is due to be released on June 20th. The album art can be viewed below and was designed by artist Storm Thorgerson.

Thorgerson discusses the artwork: "I don't think you can be certain what's going on here. To me it's a picture about fear or concern. Here's someone about to descend and doesn't know what they'll face, or where this might lead. So, in his mind he's imagining the action. That's what you see - into his mind, as he focuses on what's about to happen. When he gets to the bottom of the stairs, where does he go? Turn left, right or straight ahead - anything's possible. And I hope this cover will have fans of the band intrigued for a long while. To me, the cover should be part of the album, and not just packaging."

For Rival Sons guitarist Scott Holiday, working with Thorgerson has fulfilled a childhood dream:

"When I was 12 or 13 I'd go through my parents' vinyl, and I got to know his name and what covers he'd done. For me, he's one of the top three in his profession of all time. And I said from when I was 15 years old that one day I wanted to work with him."

The band is also planning to release a limited edition vinyl version of the album, which will feature different artwork. Holiday continues: "We have enough ideas in the bag to make it really special. What we want is for people to look at the cover and regard it as part of the whole album experience. This is a lot more than packaging."

The album's track listing is as follows:

1. All Over the Road2. Young Love3. Pressure and Time4. Only One5. Get Mine6. Burn Down Los Angeles7. Save Me8. Gypsy Heart9. White Noise10. Face of Light More...

Irish thrashers Gama Bomb are gearing up for a headlining U.K. tour, which kicks off on May 8th at the Underworld in London. The string of shows will be Gama Bomb's last before the band takes a break to work on the follow-up to the last album, "Tales From The Grave In Space."

Gama Bomb has issued the following update ahead of the tour:

"We're inside forty tons of squid-like riffs right now, writing war-hooks and brimey melodies to throw in the faces of children and pandas, but will set sail for England and Scotland in May. So come along and join our motley crew as we dock in various scurvy-riddled U.K. towns to play ship-shape new dinties from our upcoming haunted bagpipe, 'Tales From the Ghostly Galleon', and while you're at it you can taste some of the freshest catch of the day, served up on our very own first mate's guitar.

"Come May, we order ye to don your tri-cornered hat, suck a lime and get ready for a plank-walkin', bilge-swillin', rig-climbin' time with your five favourite hearties, the crew of the good ship Gama Bomb!"

Origin has posted the second of three track-by-track breakdowns of the band's new album "Entity." The second part can be read below and the artwork is available after the jump.

5. Saligia. John Longstrength: This is one of the two epics of the album if you don't count the first three songs as a single unit (which is fine if you do). We started working on this song in New York about two years ago in the winter. Despite its density and size, this song came together with relative ease (for me).

Paul Ryan: My favorite track on the album and one of the most personal when I wrote it. I didn't know if we could pull it off but we did. Took about five takes at getting the solo with the right feel. For fans of WRATH OF VISHNU!!!

6. The Descent. Paul Ryan: An interlude to give the listener a break. Peaceful yet dark.

John Longstrength: MY BEST DRUM PERFORMANCE EVER!!!

7. Fornever. John Longtrength: Something about this song that just gets me every time. It was a complete pain in the ass to learn, but every time I got it right I felt like I had accomplished something special. I wont speak any further on this song. Its music so it requires no words to be spoken about it.

Paul Ryan: Influenced by two of my favorite bands DEATH and SUFFOCATION. I was listening to a lot of Individual Thought Patterns and Pierced From Within when I wrote the music for this one. It took a little bit to get all the stops tight but once we did it was awesome!

Mike Flores: Yep, the end of the song was like playing a video game. Addicted to playing it because I was so close to playing it right. Took some time to understand it.

Meliah Rage has issued the following announcement about signing to Metal on Metal Records and posting a new music video online:

"It's official, we have signed with Italy's Metal On Metal Records! After going through a courting process with a few labels from around the globe, we are psyched to be working with Metal On Metal. Jowita & Simone (label heads) are true professionals, full-on metalheads, and the real deal, and we're looking forward to the journey ahead.

"We're currently wrapping things up in the studio on our next full-length, 'Dead to the World,' slated for a July release.

"This will coincide with our first visit to Europe in over 20 years as we hit the Headbangers Open Air Festival in Germany in late July, and we'll be looking to return for a proper tour in the fall/winter. We also recently released the video for 'Halo of Flies,' our first ever recorded cover tune (originally done by Alice Cooper on the 'Killer' record back in '71)."

German death metal act Dawn Of Disease will release the new album "Legends Of Brutality" on April 29th, 2011. The band has now posted the title track online, which can be heard at the band's MySpace page here. The previously uploaded album teaser trailer is also available at this location.

Hard rock/metal act Chrome Division, which includes Dimmu Borgir's Shagrath, is set to release the new album "3rd Round Knockout" via Nuclear Blast Records on May 6th/May 17th. The band has now announced a record release party for the album. The party will take place in Norway on June 3rd, and the promotional poster can be viewed below.

Chrome Division also recently posted a new song online from the album, titled "Bulldogs Unleashed." Details are available here. The album's track listing is as follows:

Conspires To... has issued the following update about "Redemption," the band's upcoming album:

"Mixing is still underway but we are making good progress. Still hopeful that 'Redemption' will be released next month. Delay is due to some remixing that was required to bring all songs up to the same standard. Its a bit of a pain but well worth. Anyway hang in there the wait is nearly over!"

The track listing is as follows:

1. Desire2. Desolation3. The Path To Redemption4. Falling Down5. Voice In The Storm6. Allegiance7. Soul Destroyer8. Death or Dishonour9. From the Deep10. Kill The King11. New Born Day

Legion of the Damned has announced that Richard Ebisch has to stop his current activity in the band. Richard states: "I am very grateful for having achieved so much with Legion of the Damned, but after having played in bands for so many years and having toured numerous times I decided to leave the band after careful deliberation. Because of health issues it was no longer possible for me to continue at this pace. I would like to say thank you to the fans and the Legion of the damned guys and wish them, and their new guitarist, all the best for the future."

Vocalist Maurice Swinkels also stated: "We recently successfully ended Sweden Rock Cruise and have alot of other great festivals planned ahead such as Graspop, Nummirock in Finland, Metalcamp, Bang your head and With Full force, we didn't really notice anything or felt like this is going to end somewhere for Richard. During Kettersach Festival last weekend Richard announced that he would still do Paaspop this upcoming weekend, but call it an end after that, it will be a great loss for us, but we accept his decision of course."

With the question in mind of how Legion of the Damned will continue, Maurice states: "Even though this came out of blue for us, we have no intention on cancel any of the planned festivals, who is going to replace Richard Ebisch is still a question unanswered, but hopefully we will have this answered as soon as possible as well , one thing is for sure, after Paaspop finnish metalfest Nummirock is next in line and we will be there stronger than ever!" More...

Canada's Derelict is currently offering two songs off the band's "Unspoken Words" album as free downloads. The band issued the following brief statement:

"Free download tracks available: On the Derelict Bandcamp, 'Machete' and 'Summoning the Firestorm' are now free downloads. Grab some metal."

You can stream or download the songs by heading over to the Derelict Bandcamp page at this location. Segments from a recent Derelict interview, in which the band discusses upcoming plans and tour dates, can also be found by heading over here.

Following last night's Golden Gods Awards, GWAR fans everywhere rejoiced as the two-time Grammy losing shock rock masters did not lose to Sevendust. Lead Singer Oderus Urungus' promise to have sex with anybody who voted for GWAR (who was up against Rammstein, Sevendust, Iron Maiden, Megadeth and Avenged Sevenfold in the category "best live show") apparently succeeded in garnering the band enough votes for Oderus to immediately begin bragging about:

"Sure Rammstein won, so what? The important thing is that we did not lose to Avenged Sevendust. They didn't win, so we didn't lose."

When questioned further about his apparent complete lack of understanding even what the other bands names were, Oderus completely ignored the question.

"I will now go on an immediate fuck-finding expedition where I will personally reward everyone who voted for us with a violent load. I will go anal in the Aleutians, missionary in Mississippi, plus I will fuck the Presidents dog on the White House lawn. This may take some time as I have to wait for as long as 38 seconds between erections. Because of this, I will be completely ignoring all of my other responsibilities, most notably the Crack-a-Thon, which will be rescheduled some time later this year."

The Crack-a-Thon, GWAR.tv's live, web-streaming fund-raiser (to raise money for drugs), had originally been set for June 3rd, but will instead will moved to sometime in September, the date to be announced soon.

In other GWAR happenings, the band has been included as part Rue Morgue's "Hymns From the House of Horror II," an annual compilation put out by Rue Morgue magazine "featuring the latest earworms to haunt your soul." You can get more info here.

Hate Eternal is currently streaming a new song online titled "Lake Ablaze," which is off the band's upcoming album "Phoenix Amongst the Ashes." You can check out the track by heading over to the Decibel Magazine web page at this location. The record will be released through Metal Blade Records on May 10th, and the track listing is as follows:

Just a couple weeks after dropping off their North American tour with Symphony X, American metal outfit Nevermore has announced that the band has parted ways with guitarist Jeff Loomis and drummer Van Williams, both of which have been with the group since the 1995 self-titled album. A joint statement from Loomis and Williams reads as follows:

"In a mutual decision Jeff Loomis and Van Williams have decided to leave Nevermore. The time has come to pursue our own paths from the group. Due to internal struggles and ongoing issues within the band, we feel it is our time to move on. We would like to thank all of our fans around the world for their years of love, support and enthusiasm. This was not an easy decision but a very necessary one at this point, may we all meet again someday, somewhere in time."

Dream Theater, which has still not announced a replacement for drummer Mike Portnoy, has issued the following announcement about posting a video clip online detailing the band's search fora replacement drummer:

"A little more than a month after original drummer Mike Portnoy's sudden departure from Dream Theater, the band held three days of auditions in New York City. Over an amazing and productive three-day period, the band played, jammed and spoke candidly with seven of the world's greatest drummers, learning about them musically, personally and professionally, and assessing the fit of each drummer's incredible chops with the band's trademark prog-rock sound.

"Dream Theater have been extremely sensitive to the fact that this is not only a monumental decision in their own lives, but also a critical moment in the lives of DT fans around the world. The departure of our lifelong bandmate and friend was an unexpected and truly heartbreaking blow. The fact that as a result of that event we'd be introduced to seven infinitely capable and uniquely talented drummers was heartening.

"Dream Theater would like to share with its fans some of the intense process, along with the musical joy, that went into choosing a new drummer. Who is the best fit behind the kit?

"Go to Dream Theater's Facebook page to sign up for the mailing list and to receive more details about an exclusive and intimate look at the auditions, and to find out exactly when and how the momentous announcement about the band's new lineup will be made. Also on Facebook, fans will be able to find out information about the band's upcoming 2011 World Tour."

Yesterday, several metal news site reported that Infernaeon had parted ways with vocalist Brian Werner. In a situation similar to the Gorgoroth debacle where two sides of the band insisted the other had been fired, other sources are now claiming that Werner is carrying on the band's name and the bassist and keyboardist have actually been fired.

The following statement from an Infernaeon Facebook profile was quoted by several sites yesterday:

"After much forethought, Infernaeon has decided to part ways with our singer Brian Werner. He was planning on leaving the band after our appearance at the Babylon Rising Festival in Puerto Rico, and it was decided afterwards that it would be beneficial if he carried out those plans. Infernaeon is in no way breaking up, and we thank our fans for their continued support."

Another Facebook profile bearing the same name, and apparently run by Brian Werner himself, has now been updated with the following string of messages:

"Infernaeon fires bassist and keyboardist for unprofessionalism after the show in puerto rico.

"In response to this page being hacked that is definitely NOT the case, certain member that were recently fired are just starting unneeded drama instead of having some integrity. Fact is i do find it funny how a group of people who werent even on every album or where never on ANY record contract feel they have a right to a name that was well established before they ever joined the band!

"Contrary to a bullshit press release that went out yesterday i in fact will not be quitting the band by any means. That press release was sent to blabbermouth by terminated members who have 0 legal standing to use the name Infernaeon of ANY kind. Fact is i am the sole owner of ALL intellectual property rights, artwork, merch, lyrics, music and I am the only member to appear on every release."

Additional details on the status of Infernaeon and who actually remains in the band will be announced as they are made available.

"The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues," the brand new album from Between the Buried and Me, has soared to #54 on the Billboard Top 200 chart while landing the #5 spot on the Hard Music chart, and #8 on the Independent Albums chart in its first week of release. "The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues" also debuted in Canada charting at #62 on the Top 200 Current chart, #6 Hard chart, and #14 on Independent chart.

The band's new effort was released on April 12th via Metal Blade Records. The three-song strong, 30 minute release was recorded at Canada's Metalworks Studios and Rattlebox Studios and produced / engineered by the Grammy award–winning David Bottrill (Tool, Muse, King Crimson, Dream Theater, etc.) with BTBAM. Metalunderground.com's review can be found at this location.

"The response to the new album has been absolutely amazing!", commented BTBAM's Tommy Rogers. "It's always a rewarding experience to hear excitement about the music we create. These days it's hard to judge what people think of new music, and the early feedback on tour and the Internet has really motivated us to create an even more badass record for the second part of 'The Parallax'. See you all on tour!"

Female-fronted Gothic metal act Tristania has issued the following update about performing at the next 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise:

"Tristania are delighted to announce that they will be part of the 2nd edition of the '70000 Tons of Metal' Caribbean cruise. The world's biggest floating metal festival will go ahead from January 23rd – January 28th 2012, at a 2,700 capacity cruise ship, leaving Miami (US), and visiting the capital of Canvey Island, George Town before returning to Miami.

"Tristania was in the first group of bands to be announced, together with My Dying Bride, Stratovarius, Grave Digger, Eluveitie, Pestilence and Therion. 33 (!) more bands will be announced.

"We're amazed at being invited. This is probably going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the band, and we're already looking forward to January 2012.".

A video of Brazilian metal legends Sepultura performing another new song live has been posted online via YouTube. You can check out the band performing the title track from their new album, "Kairos" below. "Kairos" will be released this Summer through Nuclear Blast Records, Sepultura's first release through the label. More...

The organisers of the Czech Republic's Brutal Assault festival has announced a further three confirmations for this year's event. Newly added to the bill are Scottish hardcore punk/crossover thrash legends The Exploited, Bay Area thrash veterans Forbidden and American mathcore outfit The Dillinger Escape Plan. The festival will take place from August 11th-13th in Josefov, Czech Republic.

The Haunted reports that the Kabuto Metal Festival that was to take place in Japan in May has been cancelled by the organizers due to the situation resulting from the earthquake and tsunami in early March. Bands who were to participate in the fest included:

White Side: Story of the Year, Thursday, Underoath, envy, Architects, Meaning, and Crossfaith